Spiced Peach Iced Tea [Non alcoholic]

Flavored with Cinnamon, cloves and star anise, infused with a simple, but delicious peach syrup, this Spiced Peach Iced Tea is a 2 minute drink you’ll be sipping all through summer.

I never truly understood the South’s obsession with Iced tea but lately, with the weather growing steadily warmer by the day, I’m starting to see the beauty in it. I was raised in a tropical climate, where even the winters have a touch of warmth in them. So come summer, when the days get noticeably fiery, it’s not as bad as you think it’d be, because you’ve been slowly building up to the heat.

But here in the States, where there’s snow and bitingly cold winters, where even spring needs a bit of induced warmth, when summer comes to play, your body has a bit of an adjustment to go through. It’s the difference between being dropped into boiling water and sitting in water that’s being brought to a gentle boil, if you catch my drift.

This is a story of how I found Milo’s Teas and changed the way I felt about iced teas.

Iced teas have become a bit of a warring point with me and my husband. He plays league tennis, and prefers to buy those individual bottles of iced tea from the stores to take to his games. Except,

Besides, with the sun slow cooking us over the summer, it helps to have a drink at hand, not just for myself, but for surprise guests and neighbors who pop in, especially because chilled water just doesn’t say ‘welcome’ enough.

I’ve quite not mastered the art of making iced tea from scratch yet, which brings about the conundrum: to tea or not to tea?

Walking the aisles of the supermarket a few weeks ago, my husband and I were warring over a case of iced tea. I said no, he disagreed and there we were, like children, in a tug off war by the shelves. Thankfully, my eyes caught a glimpse of something in the refrigerator section and we decided to hit pause on our disagreement to check it out.

Surely enough, there it was, the answer to all my iced tea problems: Milo’s Tea

Made with natural ingredients: Water + Tea + pure cane sugar and no preservatives or additives, this is as natural and real as something I’d make in the kitchen. There’s also an unsweetened version (Milo’s Unsweet Tea), which I’ve grown partial to, as it allows me to sweeten it to taste, using a sugar of my choice. And if that doesn’t interest you, they have a low calorie version too.

Whenever I find a product that thrills me, I dig a little into the company that made it. And almost always, there are a few common denominators, as is the case with Milo’s Tea: third generation family run + certified woman owned, uncompromising on the ideals the company was founded on, which was to create all natural teas from fresh ingredients without compromising on taste.

You’ll almost always see that it’s companies like these that end up listening to what their customers really need and I am so happy to have found them. Even happier that I get to share these finds with you.

Now that our tug off war had found an amicable solution, I went and bought two gallons of Milo’s Unsweet tea. And a few peaches, because well, this time of year, it is raining juicy, succulent peaches here in Georgia and a gorgeous Spiced Peach Iced tea was on my mind.

As soon as we got home, I made a simple syrup with a few peaches, slowly simmered in water and raw sugar with a few whole spices: cloves, cinnamon and star anise. In just a few moments, my kitchen (and home) was covered by an intoxicating, sweet smell that is just too beautiful to describe. This simple peach syrup is now a long-term resident in my fridge, and I’ve made repeat batches several times since.

Now whenever we fancy a tall drink of chilled iced tea, we combine the simple peach syrup with Milo’s tea. There’s always a pitcher of the Spiced Peach Iced tea in the fridge, ready to be transferred to a bottle to-go or served to anyone who comes home at a moment’s notice. I even served a giant bottomless pitcher of this at a ‘Hello Summer’ party last weekend and people went crazy for it. I had to send someone out for more Milo’s tea while additional batches of the peach syrup simmered.

I have a lot of fruit combinations to experiment with, but for now, summer’s looking extremely peachy for us. I found Milo’s at my local Kroger in the refrigerated juice section but they are available in lots of retailers. Find a store near you by using the store locator. Go make your summer peachy too!

When you make this delicious Spiced Peach Iced Tea (which I really think you SHOULD!), be sure to SHARE YOUR PHOTOS with me through Facebook, Instagram or Twitter. I’d love to see what you cook from here!

Spiced Peach Iced Tea

Instructions

Make the simple peach syrup

In a small saucepan, combine the water and sugar. Bring to a rolling boil.

Once the sugar is dissolved completely, reduce heat to a gentle simmer. Add the sliced peaches (with skin) and whole spices and let simmer for 25-30 minutes. Every now and then, push the peaches down into the sugar to allow the juices and color to leech.

Remove from heat and let cool completely. Drain the peaches and whole spices and transfer to a clean, airtight jar. Press down to release more juices from the peach.

Refrigerate the simple peach syrup. Keeps well for a month.

Assemble the iced tea

Combine 1/4 c of simple peach syrup with 1 c of iced tea to make a delicious Spiced Peach Iced tea on demand.

Serve with ice cubes, fresh peach slices and a sprig of mint for a refreshing summer drink.

Yes, Chaitali. It’s just tea leaves/powder steeped in hot water! 🙂 Make it a little thinner than you’d make it for say, Indian Chai. Because you won’t be adding milk to dilute the strength. I hope that makes sense.